Just another day at the office
by sannipan
Summary: Columbus, Ohio - 1911 Dr. Carlisle Cullen treats a 16 year old girl with a broken leg.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi there! This is my first ever attempt at fanfiction. It's not perfect, but I have been having fun with it.. ****Hope you'll like it!**

**XO**

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**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer is awesome, and so are her characters. No one can bring them to life like she does!**

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Carlisle's point of view

It was 5AM, when I walked into my small, but comfortable water front house after having hunted close to my home town of Columbus, Ohio. It was September, 1911, and just like many weeks before it promised to be another wonderfully dreary, overcast day. Luckily, despite the fact that the city was growing rapidly, both in size and population, the surrounding area was a heavily wooded one, in which more interesting wild life than elk was to be found. Also, the Riverside Methodist Hospital, though relatively new, was a hospital that already had good credentials. All in all I found myself happy to live here.

After changing into my working attire I stepped into my recently acquired automobile and drove to the hospital. The moment I entered the hospital grounds I felt happy. This was the one place I felt like I could put my being a vampire into good use, in diagnosing and helping my patients. I greeted the secretary at the front desk, Martha, and, I was used to the effect I seemed to have on women, her heart rate quickened and she turned red, looking down and mumbling a shy "Good morning, dr. Cullen".

As soon as I entered the ward I was assigned to, my intern, Jeremiah, handed me my cup of coffee. Like every morning, I had to think of a way to dispose of the warm smelly stuff inconspicuously. I gathered the nurses and the doctor that had been doing the night shift to ask about an update on my patients. I was glad to find out nothing was seriously wrong with them. I always felt uncomfortable leaving them behind "tired after a long day of work". I went to see them in person and chatted a bit with them. Jeremiah tried to keep up with all of the cases, and I compliment him on his knowledge.

Around 10AM I walked to the emergency room with Jeremiah trying to keep up with me, always two feet behind. I stopped trying to adjust my pace to that of my interns, if I walked slower so they could catch up with me, they would just walk even slower. Apparently it was some unwritten rule amongst them never to walk next to the doctor, always to act inferior. I stopped trying to ask them to treat me like their colleague, not their boss. They somehow just don't feel like I really mean it. All I can do is be nice as nice as possible. It was a slow day, so I started tutoring Jeremiah. I noticed interns never dare to approach their supervisors, never dare to ask possible questions they may have. It was nice to transfer the knowledge I have gathered in my centuries of half-life to the new generation. "…and this is how you can be almost certain that the infraspinatus muscle is torn rather than the teres minor muscle. Furthermore, …"

MaryAnn, one of the ER nurses approached me telling multiple patients were coming in, an elderly man that runs a fever and is coughing non-stop, a young woman with a possible broken leg, and a man in his fifties suffering from influenza-like symptoms. I told Jeremiah to start checking the patient with the fever, while I go and see the man with the flu. I feel safer knowing not too many humans are in close contact with people that have influenza, I don't want them to get sick. The man poses to be rather ill and I decide to admit him. When I came back to the doctor's office to write everything down on the medical chart I noticed that Jeremiah was still working on his patient. No more pressing patients arrived, so I decided to see the young girl with the broken leg.

The chart read Ms. Esme Platt. I walked in to see a girl around sixteen years of age holding a leg that was lying in an awkward position. Clearly broken. Although we have a state of the art X-ray machine in this hospital, I feel like it is only to be used in cases in which it is not clear whether a bone is broken. It is told to be dangerous when used too often. I approach the patient, knowing that speaking in a kind, soft regimen makes patients are more at ease. "Good morning, my name is dr. Carlisle Cullen. Miss Platt, what have you been doing today to have your leg distorted like this?" The girl flushed bright red, and mumbled something about falling from trees and how upset her mother was, "She says it is being frowned upon for a woman my age to be climbing trees". I chuckle, she seems honest and nice, sweet somehow. While examining her leg I ask her about her hobbies and dreams of the future. She tells me about wanting to go to college and to be a teacher herself. I find myself immediately interested in her story. Most girls her age don't want to go to university, they mostly think about finding a suiting husband. We talk some more about the books we both like. Then MaryAnn walks in to help me set the bone. I tell Esme the procedure will increase the pain for a little while, only to decrease plenty when it is over. I feel guilty for having to do this in advance. She asks me to talk her through it. "Okay, Ms. Platt, I need you to take deep breaths now. I will have to pull on your leg for a bit, so it will go back into its original position. It might help if you think of something nice. On the count of three. One, two, three." I start pulling, while MaryAnn holds Esme's hand. I hear the distinct click I have come to recognize as the bone setting. She does not scream. One single tear spills over. I tell her that this was it, the procedure is done. "Now we will only have to put a cast on it." Somehow I feel protective of this young girl. She seems so innocent and brave. I decide to put the cast on myself. Normally MaryAnn would do it, but she doesn't dare to say anything about it. I still wonder why people never dare to talk back to me. Is it their protective instincts not to go against a vampire's will, or is it my profession as a doctor that makes them act this way?

Being a vampire, my tactile sense was better developed than a human's. I would be able to put the cast on without hurting Esme at all, while MaryAnn may have put another tear on Esme's beautiful porcelain face. While I work on her leg, Esme continues to talk happily about the books that she likes. After the cast is put on, I shake her hand and tell her not to fall from any more trees. MaryAnn walks back in with crutches and escorts Esme back to her father, who is waiting in the waiting area.

I have a smile on my face when I re-enter the doctor's office to help Jeremiah with his patient.

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**Okay, that's it. It's a cute, small piece I came to think of when I was in the hospital myself. Hope you liked it!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer is awesome, and so are her characters. No one can bring them to life like she does!**

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Carlisle's point of view

Columbus – 1911

It's been weeks since Ms Platt visited the emergency room, but I still find myself thinking about her, and the happiness that seemed to bubble off of her despite the obvious pain that she was in due to the bone fracture that she suffered from. I don't know what the reason is for me to think about her. If I am being completely honest with myself, 'thinking about Esme' is an understatement. I worry about her. I worry a lot. Rationally I know that despite the fact that the break wasn't a clean one, being the young and healthy girl that she is, her leg would be fine by now. I have treated hundreds of patients with worse injuries than hers and I know they turned out just fine. I worry about all my patients, humans are so fragile compared to me, but somehow this young woman named Esme Platt has me worried sick. Of course, being a vampire, my mind works a lot faster and has more room than that of a human's, so my worries don't interfere with me being able to do my job. Still I think it's better I moved on to another city. I've been in Columbus for years now, claiming to be thirty-three years old. Time to move on.

So I find my self writing my umpteenth letter of resignation while I'm sitting in my office at the hospital working a slow night shift. I've done this before, this time I decide it is a job offer that has been made to me in a great clinic in Sacramento, Ca. Of course it was an offer I could not refuse. Everyone would understand that. I would have to leave right away if I want to start next week. I always feel sad when I have to leave and start over in a new town. Although I can never be too close to humans, it feels nice to be able to have acquaintances. I take my favorite atlas from the shelf and close my eyes, pointing anywhere on the map. I open my eyes and find out my new home will be in the state of New Hampshire.  
As soon as my decision is made, I return to doing some last patient check ups, run some errands. It is still early in the morning when Dr. Morrison walks in. I greet him with a "Hi, Andrew", and give him my letter. After that I pick up my belongings and leave the hospital without looking back.


End file.
